Quintana or Floyd would have been fine for Sox vs. Tigers
Q. Do you like Jose Quintana pitching against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, or would you rather have Gavin Floyd starting the makeup game?
A. Honestly, it’s kind of tough to say. As everyone knows, Floyd has been outstanding in his career against Detroit, which includes this season.
It should be noted that Floyd’s success against the Tigers this year came mostly in a pair of early-season starts, at a time when Detroit wasn’t all that good.
Floyd’s outing against them last week was certainly respectable considering it was his first start in 2½ weeks.
I also expect that he will be able to throw between 90-plus pitches when he starts Tuesday.
On the other hand, Quintana’s brilliant performance last Monday, coupled with the fact he will be pitching on five days’ rest, certainly instills some confidence he will be able to give the Sox something in the neighborhood of what he did Sept. 10, or at least a quality start.
It’s no secret that Quintana and Chris Sale have benefited from extra rest throughout the season, when they’ve been afforded the opportunity.
However, with the Sox in the final playoff push and with zero off-days remaining, it’ll be difficult to get those two pitchers extra days over the next couple of weeks.
How will this translate Monday? We’ll have to wait and see.
The bottom line is that both starters carry with them a bit of uncertainty but also excellent potential to dominate the Tigers.
Q. Adam Dunn returned to the lineup Saturday. With a nagging injury like an oblique strain, do you expect him to stay healthy the rest of the way?
A. I can only go by what he says and how he has looked the last two days since returning.
So far he doesn’t appear to be having an issues, and he says he feels good. But the reality is that there’s no real way of knowing if he will reaggravate the injury.
All the Sox can do is watch him closely and hope he’s completely honest about how he feels. The last thing the team needs is for him to be lost for the rest of the year.
Q. With so many relief pitchers now, is it difficult for Robin Ventura not to over-manage?
A. There has to be some temptation to utilize the abundance of relievers, especially when they’ve got a few important bullpen pieces that may feel a little overworked of late.
There are only four relievers in the American League who have appeared in more games than Matt Thornton has, and both Jesse Crain and Brett Myers have seen a good amount of work the last few weeks.
Ventura knows he needs to avoid wearing them out at this point of the year. My guess is that the usage of the pen will normalize as they get toward the final week of the season.
Aside from overall team health, one thing that will help decide the division is the effectiveness of the bullpen. The Sox need to be at their best in this area.
ŸChris Rongey is the host of the White Sox pregame and postgame shows on WSCR 670-AM The Score. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRongey and at chrisrongey.com. Subscriber Total Access members can email him questions each week via our online link.